


The Gods Love Blood

by lwise2019



Series: Mikkel's Story [53]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24077341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019
Summary: Mikkel ponders.
Series: Mikkel's Story [53]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536739
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	The Gods Love Blood

As Emil told his tale and Mikkel translated quietly to Reynir, Lalli finished his meal, looked around the table for more and, finding none, rose and went off to the bunks. All eyes followed him even as the two continued to talk. The scout studied the eight bunks, only three of which were made up, and then, decisively, pulled the blanket from Mikkel's bunk, wrapped himself in it, and rolled under the bunk to sleep. Sigrun, across the table from Mikkel, glanced over at him, then covered her face and turned away from them all, her shoulders shaking. Mikkel did not know if she suppressed sobs or laughter. Perhaps both.

Finishing the story, Emil sighed heavily. “I am so tired. I could sleep for a week.”

“You may do so if you wish,” Mikkel answered, rising and digging through their baggage for more bedding.

Reynir was by his side immediately. “Can I help?”

“No, I'll do this. Or – yes, you can help. We'll have to wash their clothes before the stench permeates the building and renders it uninhabitable.”

“Uh … yes. I'll wash their clothes.”

Mikkel made up a bunk for Emil, pulling back the covers, and the younger man was there, throwing himself into the bunk and exclaiming gratefully, “A bed! A real bed!”

Mikkel pulled the covers up over him, murmuring, “Sleep now, Emil. You have done your duty bravely and well.”

But Emil was already asleep, and did not hear.

Sigrun, still not entirely recovered and worn out by the emotional whiplash of the past few days, also went to bed. Reynir set to work scrubbing the two boys' filthy clothes while Mikkel retreated to his usual position where he could see the whole room and everyone in it. He watched over them in silence until the Icelander commented, “I had almost given up on them.”

“Almost?”

“Yes, well … when I dream here, it's like there's this ocean that goes on forever and ever, but in the dream I can walk on water and there are … places in it. Lalli has a place, and Onni, and Anne had her church but it's gone now … I don't think I should describe Lalli's place. I think it's something very private. He doesn't even want me there but, well, I just found him that first night, when I discovered that I dream here. I wonder, will I still dream back in Iceland?

“Anyway, that's where Lalli should have been when he was sleeping. I looked for him there, every night, but he wasn't ever there and I started to wonder if his place could still be there even after he was … dead.”

“And Onni? Is he still there?”

“I went to see him, to tell him about, about Tuuri, but he already knew. He was really angry at me. I told him we were separated from Lalli, and he threw me out. He put up a wall against me. So I can't talk to him anymore, but the wall is still there, and I guess he's still inside.”

A little tension went out of Mikkel. _At least he's still alive. He has to be alive, because I haven't repaid him for sending the firebird._ He sniffed, then wrinkled his nose.

“My clothes need to be washed too. They picked up some of the filth off the boys. But I've got to fix the fence again, and there's no sense wearing clean clothes for that. Do you remember how to set the sensors?”

“Yes, I'll do that!”

Mikkel got to his feet more easily than he had in days. He seemed to have laid down an immense weight that he'd been carrying all unknowing. “You're well protected,” he said, looking over at the three sleeping immunes: none of them was in good shape, but all together could certainly defend the bunkhouse. He took up the wire and wire-cutter and left.

This time he twisted the wires so tightly that any other man would require tools to remove them, paying careful attention to what he was doing, with the result that he drove the heavy wire halfway through his left hand. Swearing, he yanked out the wire, flexed his fingers to be sure he could still use the hand, and kept going, blood dripping slowly from his glove.

With the task complete, he pulled off the glove to look at the damage. _Not too bad. It'll heal. Just another scar. And some blood._

_“The gods love blood.” Who said that? Oh, Sigrun, at the antique shop before … before the hospital. Before the attack. Before everything._

Still looking at the wound, he pulled the pendant from under his shirt. Clasping it in his bleeding hand, he turned to stare out through the fence at the distant woods.

_I never had to shoot a comrade. I never even came very close. But Emil – kind, generous, thoughtful Emil – had to make up his mind to do it. He almost did do it. That's going to be hard for him to remember. But he **didn't** do it and he brought his comrade to safety alive and well. He did his duty._

_Emil's young yet. I'll take him back to his people, and he'll go on, and the nightmares will leave him in time. Probably._

Blood dripped from his fist.

_Lalli. He's so small, and he can't understand me, so I've treated him like a child, all this time. I haven't meant to, but I have. He isn't a child; he's a man, and an astonishingly powerful man at that. When he was unconscious and I thought of slapping him awake, I thought it would be like child abuse and that Tuuri – dear lost Tuuri – would have stopped me._

He smiled slightly. _Given his powers, more likely he'd've splattered me all over the inside of the tank!_

The smile faded. _He's used his powers twice that I know of and been incapacitated for days both times. Powerful as he is, he needs protection. Well, that's why I'm here. I'll guard and protect him, feed him, and deliver him back to his cousin safely._

_Or die trying, of course. There's always that option._

Frowning, he rested his forehead against the fence and the slanting light cast the shadow of wires across his face. Where had that thought come from? It was true, of course, but according to the plan the quarantine ship would take them to Iceland, Onni was to meet them there, and Lalli would be delivered to Onni as soon as they arrived. It was unlikely to be necessary to die trying.

His knuckles were white as he clenched his bleeding fist around the pendant.

_Then there's Reynir. The kid never even wanted to be here. He just wanted to go to Bornholm to see the palm trees. We're lucky he was here, though. If he hadn't been … we'd have gone to Kastellet anyway; that was inevitable once we found the cure at the plaza, at Amalienborg. But we wouldn't have known about the ghosts, and without him to call to Onni for help, they'd have killed us that first night._

There was something about that thought, something that was missing. He waited, but the answer did not come. After a moment he shrugged.

_He's grown up, though. When I think of the scared kid cowering away from Emil, and then Reynir standing up to me, when I was … despairing …_

_If Sigrun hadn't come in just then …_

_But he stood up to both of us and got rid of the ghosts, the ghosts from all over Denmark. And even before that, he was protecting the team from ghosts with his runes. I couldn't have protected them. A soldier can't fight against ghosts._

He frowned again. There was still something nagging at him. He studied the woods; had he seen something, some flicker of movement, not consciously recognized? There was nothing. He shrugged, losing himself again in his thoughts.

_I'll keep him safe, take him home to his own people, and maybe he can come to Bornholm in the Spring, see Mom's garden when it's blooming._

_And Sigrun. I'll take her home to the crazy Norwegian troll-hunters, and she'll be a better captain for having passed through the darkness and into the light beyond. She'll be rich, too, though I don't know what use money is to her. And then she'll have all the stories to tell in the long winter nights!_

_Yes, Sigrun will be happy. All I have to do is guard and protect and care for her for a little while longer._

His fingers were white and bloodless while blood still dripped from his fist.

_And I … I'll find something. I don't think I'll buy that farm after all. I'm not really a farmer anyway. There will be something, there always is. Maybe there's a ship that will take me. Maybe the General needs a courier again. Maybe the Army will take me back._

He blinked, straightened, looked sharply towards the woods as if someone had called his name.

_I'll tell them what happened at Kastrup._

It all came together at once.

_A scout came across ghosts, but he couldn't see them, no more than I could. They followed him back to the base, as they followed me, and attacked in the darkness. The soldiers couldn't fight them, couldn't even see them. Then the swarm arrived, maybe driven by the ghosts or maybe just another swarm attracted by the lights and the noise, and the soldiers, dead or dying, trying to fight the invisible, were easy meat._

_I should have died at Kastrup. I should have died with the rest of them. But I was not there, and maybe Maja is right that the gods prompted me to be insolent that day. Because I was not there at Kastrup, I **was** there at Kastellet. Maybe someone else would have gone, but maybe if I hadn't been here the whole expedition would have failed earlier or perhaps never gone at all. Only the gods can say._

_But I **was** there at Kastellet and the ghosts pursued me and all the long trail of horrors followed. And yet, in the end, the ghosts are gone and … Kastrup is avenged._

_Tuuri – was Tuuri the sacrifice, because the gods love blood? Because the gods **demand** blood?_

_It should have been **my** blood._

He pried open his fingers, regarded the pendant, red and slick with his blood. He gripped it again, meaning to hurl it from him into the Silent World, but after a long moment, he dropped it back under his shirt.

_You didn't get heart's blood, not this time. But wait there. You'll get it, in time._


End file.
